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The Israeli military forbids Palestinians from walking or driving on their own streets, even welding shut the front doors of Palestinian homes.

Two weeks ago in Old Hebron, a once-bustling Palestinian city in the West Bank, I saw a ghost town. The streets were empty except for dozens of Israeli soldiers, on patrol with automatic weapons and flak vests, and a handful of young Israelis from illegal settlements. The occasional Israeli military vehicle rolled by slowly, towering over us.

I was in Palestine with a group of mostly black and brown activists and lawyers from across the United States. We were on a one-week “Justice Delegation,” organized by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Eye Witness Palestine, to see with our own eyes the dire human rights situation 70 years after the founding of Israel, what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when up to one million Palestinians were expelled from their homes. Since March 30, thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated in Gaza to demand their right of return, with Israel killing at least 108 and wounding more than 10,000 since the mobilizations began.

As Gazans risked their lives to protest, what we saw across Israel and the West Bank was an ongoing Nakba.

In Hebron, the group of young settlers, no more than eight years old, were not happy we were there. They followed us, screaming “Arab dogs” and other racist slurs while throwing bottles at us. The hatred in their young eyes is something I’ll never forget.

At Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday, before boarding my flight back to the United States, Israeli airport officials confiscated my journal. I was both angry and sad when they told me they were keeping it. “On what grounds?” I asked, but they refused to answer. I pleaded, telling them it included my personal, private thoughts. In addition to 28 pages of notes from the trip, the journal contained entries about my relationship with my boyfriend, written long before traveling to Palestine. “The book stays with us. Have a nice flight,” said one of the half-dozen airport security officers who were poring over my journal.

Why would Israel want my journal?

Was it my notes about our meeting with Bassem Tamimi, a Palestinian activist who organizes weekly protests against illegal Israeli settlements and colonization in his West Bank village of Nabi Saleh? Tamimi told us about his wife, Nariman, and his young daughter, Ahed, both of whom are in Israeli military prison. His daughter was arrested and sentenced in Israeli military court for slapping a heavily armed Israeli solider outside her home after soldiers shot her fifteen-year-old cousin in the head at close range. Tamimi’s wife was arrested for filming the incident and charged with “incitement.” In my journal I wrote down Tamimi’s words to us: “Strong and free women make a strong and free generation.”

Maybe Israel confiscated my journal because of what legendary human rights lawyer Raji Sourani told us, via skype, about the situation in Gaza. In recent weeks, Israel has responded to mass Palestinian protests along the Gaza border with grotesque violence, killing dozens of Palestinians protesting peacefully for basic rights, including the right to return to their homes, and wounding thousands more. Sourani said, “We want the opportunity to end the siege [on Gaza] and to end the occupation and to be human beings in dignity. They are doing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

Or maybe it was my notes from Umm al-Hiran, a Bedouin village in the Naqab desert. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, this Bedouin community has struggled to preserve its traditional, semi-nomadic way of life, despite Israel’s efforts to take their land. But their struggle seems to be coming to an end. Israel will soon force them off their land, demolish their homes and their way of life, and replace it with a Jewish-only colony.

In my journal, I wrote down what one of the Bedouin activists told us: “Visiting and solidarity is not enough. … What’s more important is to speak of our plight back home in Congress, [in the] media, and take it to the streets.”

As an attorney at Palestine Legal, I am not surprised that Israel doesn’t want these stories to be told. I am well-versed in the suppression of speech supportive of Palestinian rights. Israel and its proxies spend tens – if not hundreds – of millions of dollars to censor speech critical of Israeli government policies and to punish those who speak out for Palestinian freedom. Israeli officials know they are on the losing end of any debate about their violations of Palestinian rights and international law. Their strategy is to stop the debate from happening.

When it comes to suppressing speech critical of Israeli policies, Israeli authorities have powerful allies in the United States. Last year, my colleagues and I at Palestine Legal responded to 308 incidents of suppression of US-based advocacy for Palestinian rights, likely just the tip of the iceberg. From 2014 to the end of 2017, we responded to 958 such incidents.

For example, when students at Fordham University wanted to start a Students for Justice in Palestine club, Fordham banned the club, an unprecedented move. When Israel advocacy groups pressured University of California at Berkeley, the birthplace of the free speech movement, to cancel a course about Palestine, the university relented.

In recent years Israel’s supporters have pressured 24 states to enact laws aimed at punishing companies, organizations and individuals who support political boycotts for Palestinian rights, despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has long held such boycotts are protected by the First Amendment. Legislation in Congress that would criminalize boycotts for Palestinian rights tied to actions by the European Union or United Nations enjoys broad bipartisan support, including from leading Democrats like Chuck Schumer (N.Y.).

These efforts are aimed at shielding Israel from accountability for its inexcusable treatment of Palestinians. In doing so, Israel's supporters trample on our First Amendment rights. None of this compares to Israel’s violent responses to Palestinians who advocate for their basic rights.

Last week, as the Justice Delegation prepared to return to the United States, I was assured by several lawyers and activists that Israel, which markets itself as the only democracy in the Middle East, would not confiscate my private journal. But over the course of our week there, we had met with numerous Israelis and Palestinians who raised alarms over the rapid rise of far-right authoritarianism in Israel. Four members of our delegation, including prominent human rights attorneys, had been denied entry into Israel. As Ayman Odeh, a member of the Knesset who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, told us: “Only a state with something to hide would prevent people from coming to see.”

On our way to Ben Gurion Airport on May 6, I had a pit in my stomach. I had a feeling that airport officials would go through my belongings, read my journal, and confiscate it. As our bus approached the airport, I took photos of all twenty-eight pages of notes I had taken over the course of our week there. I may never see my journal again, but at least I can tell the stories that Israel doesn’t want us to hear.

Rahul is a staff attorney with Palestine Legal. His work focuses on legislative issues, advocacy for activists whose rights are under attack, and building Palestine Legal's network of legal and other advocates.

It's a state responsible for a great many atrocities, just like many other states one could name. But "a colony"? Of what other country? How can it be a colony AND colonialist (in its government's attempt at conquering all "Greater Israel") at the same time?

Posted by Bipolar Blabbermouth on 2018-05-26 17:19:19

Sorry, but a book by one person does not define an entire historical period. Also, where do you stand on the fact that every Muslim country in the Middle East has pushed out or expelled every Jewish inhabitant (and took their property in the process)?

Posted by sharonsj on 2018-05-25 15:46:46

Isn't what you call "Old Hebron" the oldest known Jewish area in the region? Hebron, where Arabs tried several times to massacre the Jews--before the existence of Israel? Hebron, including the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem, which was occupied by Jordan (that proceeded to expel all the Jews)?

Posted by sharonsj on 2018-05-25 15:44:33

those Irgun terrorist under ground, blowup ship of Jews, who change their mind and try go back to their old homeland , where ever they came to Palestine, 260 of them as Jews was assassinated by same irgun Jews Zionist , also British mad hard for their entry to Palestine, now you call it Palestinian want to move out ?

Posted by Marzih Stelmack on 2018-05-21 23:15:50

Read in Wikipedia Dire Yassin, massacre in history, genocide of Sabra and Shatila even cut pregnant mother, all by crime of and responsibility of Arial Sharon fortunately Jewish american nurse as whistleblower show the world Zionist crime also Sharon could not travel to Europe, to be captured by European human right law, no one should be wonder Zionist Israeli , mad Hitler like angle, when war world 2 was only 4 years but crime of Zionist against Palestinian are 70 years

Posted by Marzih Stelmack on 2018-05-21 22:54:56

Jews Zionist for profit by name of fear kill any one, even Yitzhak Rabin man who fight all his life, for Israeli, at the end they assassinated him when he want peace for all,

Posted by Marzih Stelmack on 2018-05-21 22:33:14

Hitler knows Zionist the best,

Posted by Marzih Stelmack on 2018-05-21 22:28:13

You live in a fantasy, a nationalist myth my friend. You're the one living a lie. The Jewish terrorist Irgun expropriated, murderded and expelled the Palestinians and stole their land. Go read your own Jewish historian Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel and The Invention of the Jewish People. Then come back and tell us about how the Arabs "ran away."

Posted by Richard on 2018-05-21 08:08:14

How many machine guns, how may tanks, how many air force bombers do the Palestinians have? It's always Palestinian teenagers with slingshots or rocks or toy rockets against massively armed and armored imperialist Jews. The Jews kill hundreds and thousands of Palestinians for every Jew killed by a Palestinian -- and the Jews are the illegal occupiers. The Palestinians have every right to fight back, to kill the Jews. It was not Palestinians who started the violence. It was the Jews who expelled the original Palestinian inhabitants --- and they did so by terror while now of course , hypocrites that they are, they denounce terrorism by Palestinians.

Posted by Richard on 2018-05-21 08:04:40

I repeat, no Israeli soldier received so much as a scratch in the incident while 50+ defenseless Palestinians were murdered, including children.

Israel is the only apartheid state in the world, a racist colony created and sustained by savage zionist terrorism and ethnic cleansing campaigns.

Hamas did admit it and the video is out there for you to see too! You are the one who is too blinded by your own hate and lies towards Israel that you can't even see the truth in reality even if it slapped you in the face! Shame on you for supporting Hamas!

Posted by GPB on 2018-05-20 01:05:29

No, Hamas didn't admit that. And you know it. Hamas and all the other Palestinian resistance movements are the equivalent of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Posted by Wesley Stubbs Sandel on 2018-05-19 22:26:16

Right, one million defenseless, native Christian and Muslim fathers, mothers and children voluntarily abandoned their family homes, their communities, their businesses, their farms, orchards and crops because "somebody in the Arab League told them to," and not because the Jewish colonists had, for the last decade-and-a-half been subjecting the native Christian and Muslim population to systematic, violent racist terror, blowing up bombs in crowded buses, markets and cafes, massacring entire villages and throwing bombs into occupied Palestinian homes.

You seem to believe that people can't research the conflict for themselves. Begin with "zionist political violence."

Posted by Wesley Stubbs Sandel on 2018-05-19 22:24:24

You are a liar!!! Most of the Arabs of the British Mandate back then, ran away and evacuated their own villages by orders of the Arab leaders who declared war against Israel and promised them they will return once Israel is obliterated! It is well documented by the Arabs themselves too! Throughout history people had been displaced because of wars, but eventually assimilated in their new countries. In this case, the Arabs of the British Mandate returned to their original Arab countries! That's way they belong! They have more than 20 Arab countries to go to. Jews have only one tiny country in this world. Leave Israel alone already!

Posted by GPB on 2018-05-19 22:09:09

Hamas officials already admitted in their own media that 52 of the people who died are their own armed militants! They were not innocent kids or doctors but mostly terrorists with deadly weapons in their hands!!! So how can you say that 55 "defenseless" people died???

Posted by GPB on 2018-05-19 22:00:03

LOL!!!! It is the Jews of Hebron who live in a small Ghetto, not the Arabs!!! Only this time in history, it is the Israeli army who are protecting that small ghetto and community of Jews who still live in Hebron and won't let a majority of Arabs to massacre them! Ignoring the fact that Jews are not allowed to live in Palestinian areas outside that Jewish Ghetto, and are subjected to violence and death in their own Jewish neighborhood in Hebron is showing great deal of your vile lies and agenda against Israel. The real apartheid there is by Palestinians against Jews, not the other way around!

Posted by GPB on 2018-05-19 21:48:00

"Mass expelled"? It was a text-book ethnic cleansing - the Jewish colonists massacred entire villages, threw bombs into occupied Palestinian homes, raped women, executed those who couldn't or wouldn't flee and then systematically destroyed over 400 Palestinian towns and villages.

And when the UN dispatched an envoy to negotiate the refugees human right to return to the homes and communities from which they were forced at gunpoint, the Jewish colonists assassinated the UN diplomat, named a high Israeli military honor, the Lehi Ribbon, for the assassins and voted in the lead assassin as prime minister.

Posted by Wesley Stubbs Sandel on 2018-05-19 19:34:14

How does this work in that thing you pretend is a mind - Jewish soldiers with sniper rifles stand behind concrete barriers and shoot over 55 defenseless people, including children, doctors and journalists, while no one Israeli soldier receives so much as a scratch (literally),

and you blame it on the victims. It's that "special" zionist logic.

Posted by Wesley Stubbs Sandel on 2018-05-19 19:32:50

It would appear that you may be not impartial here. I say that because you described the Hamas protests last week as "peaceful'. Days of rage and riots aren't peaceful. Nice try. No cigar.